Harry and Hali

This summer when we visited Germany, AA lost her stuffed whale on the way there. To cheer her up, Oma gave her a stuffed dog (or wolf, we are still debating, but AA decided he is a dog , so dog it is) AA was very happy that she got a new friend and prompted named him.

I asked her in Mandarin what his name, she responded in Mandarin “他的名字叫哈利 (His name is Hali)”. I told her that I was pleasantly surprised that she gave the dog a Chinese name. She corrected me, “He has two names, one in English, Harry, and one in Mandarin like everybody else.”

It is true that in our family we all have two names, Chinese and Angelo (we choose the names the work in both German and English). It is interesting to me that she applies that subtle knowledge to her toys. It is also very practical. This way, we don’t have to switch to English pronunciation mid way through our Mandarin sentences and vise versa.